Yelich homers early to power Brewers past last-place Rockies

DENVER (AP) — Colin Rea pitched seven innings, Christian Yelich homered and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0 on Wednesday night.

“My delivery felt really good tonight,” Rea said. “It felt like timing was good. ... I felt like we were executing all night.”

Rea (8-2) gave up six hits while striking out four and walking none in his fourth victory in five starts.

“To come to Colorado and throw seven scoreless is a really remarkable feat,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said about Rea. “He was committed all day. You could see it. He made some great pitches, had a good plan and stuck with it.”

William Contreras and Brice Turang each had three hits to help the Brewers win for the eighth time in 10 games and extend their lead over St. Louis in the NL Central to seven games.

Yelich hit a 446-foot home run in the first inning off a sinker from Dakota Hudson (2-12). Yelich is 7 of 14 with three home runs and nine walks in 23 career plate appearances against Hudson.

“He’s a good hitter, but I left pitches over the middle of the plate," Hudson said.

It was Contreras’ second three-hit game in the past three. He entered the night third in the National League in hits with 99.

The win capped an eventful evening for Yelich and Contreras, who were named starters for the All-Star Game.

Milwaukee shortstop Willy Adames was ejected in the top of the fifth after arguing a called third strike with umpire Mark Ripperger.

Colorado lost for the seventh time in nine games. The Rockies are an NL-worst 29-57, the worst 86-game start in franchise history.

Hudson gave up seven hits and three earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, an appearance that ended immediately after he walked Garrett Mitchell with the bases loaded.

Colorado had a chance to tie it in the eighth with runners on first and second and two outs, but Ryan McMahon — the team’s home run leader — popped out to deep left field, with Yelich chasing the ball down and catching it near the wall.

“I clipped it a little bit,” McMahon said. "I still got some pretty good wood on it. I was hoping it got past them.”

Brenton Doyle, Brendan Rodgers and Jake Cave each had two hits for the Rockies.

“We couldn’t bunch them together," Colorado manager Bud Black said. "That’s been a little bit of our issue the entire season, just our run production.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Brewers: Placed INF Joey Ortiz (neck inflammation) on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to July 2. … Placed RHP Enoli Paredes (right forearm tendinitis) on the 15-day injured list.

Rockies: Recalled RHP Peter Lambert from Triple-A Albuquerque. … Optioned RHP Riley Pint to Triple-A Albuquerque.

UP NEXT

RHP Tobias Myers (5-2, 3.26 ERA) was set to start for Milwaukee against RHP Cal Quantrill (6-6, 3.78).

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